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I know it's a forum protocol to reply to my own message, but sometimes you've just to flaunt protocol. To follow up on Don's presentation, here are a couple of pictures from our pond showing how he creates a housing for a submersible pump using a big PVC pipe. I've also included a picture showing the pond last August (the pond wasn't finished until mid-July, so the plants aren't that big). The plants are just getting going again now.

Staff Member

In Downingtown PA they have an annual pond tour (for charity). It is mainly sponsored by a company who installs and maintains ponds. There are usually 50 to 70 ponds on the tour. For $30 you get a map of where the ponds are located and their addresses. You can go in any order to the ponds and of course you do not have to go to all of them, which would really be a challenge. When we go we usually get to only 15 of them. But the ponds are almost all fantastic. You get all sorts of ideas about ponds and see tons of great looking fish and flowers and plants and rock gardens and filters and water falls and streams with an without small pools in the streams. Some have bridges and some have walking stones across the pond. The owners are mostly more than willing to explain how their filters and pumping systems work. The sponsoring company has a banquet with beer and such at the end of the day. Food is great.

A similar pond tour was held by the West Virginia Koi Club in Charleston. When we lived there, my pond was on the tour. There were probably 20 or 25 ponds on the tour, spread over a wide area, but you could get to all the ponds in one day. Might be easier now days with GPS.

I use to belong to Mid Atlantic Koi Club. I do not remember that club having pond tours. But meetings were held at the ponds of members so we got to see a number of great high tech Koi ponds. They did have Koi shows with the canvas ponds of about 1000 gallons and high value Koi, and a lot of lower cost Koi.

One thing does stand out: ponds with high water flow to water features tend to have healthy fish and have great water quality.

So where can you get the 12 inch black PVC pipe, and/or with the holes already in it?

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Don's crew used a white piece of PVC, drilled holes in it (I think 1" holes), and spray painted it black. So buy some 12" PVC and some spray paint. The holes are only on the half of the pipe that faces the water.

Staff Member

So that helps keep yucky stuff out of the pump? I have a debris handling pump, but I wouldn't mind if it handled less debris...

Also, for those interested in ponds, GWAPA's June meeting is at Lilypons. There should be a discount for meeting attendees that day ;-).

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It keeps big stuff out of the pump. We have a solids handling pump, too, but it's good to keep wood chips and the like out.

I modified Don's design by buying a sheet of foam and putting it over the outside of the PVC cylinder. It's essentially a Mattenfilter in the pond. I have to clean it every few months, but that's easy to do.